A Silver Lining for Detroit's Failed Soccer Stadium Plan

The renaissance of Downtown Detroit will not include a new soccer stadium, but don't call it a setback.

1 minute read

November 8, 2017, 6:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


"So we won’t after all see a new soccer stadium rise in downtown Detroit," reports John Gallagher.

Gallagher presents the soccer stadium idea as another example of "Unbuilt Detroit":

Fanciful projects announced with fanfare, illustrated with entrancing images, and then vanishing without a trace — the Unbuilt Detroit archive bulges with dozens if not hundreds of these.

But, Gallagher also notes that famous failures also sometimes pave the way for something even better. The site proposed for the soccer stadium—the Wayne County jail site—could still become home to Amazon, or to the "entertainment-based mixed-use district" proposed by Dan Gilbert, with or without Amazon or a soccer stadium.

Friday, November 3, 2017 in Detroit Free Press

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